China’s maritime ambition

Symbolic gestures are usually a mix of intent and ambition. China’s recent success in its bid for a bloc for exploration and exploitation of minerals and natural resources on the Indian Ocean sea-bed is at once an expression of intent, self-confidence and ambition. It follows up on China’s ambition to maintain a long-term presence in the Indian Ocean, signalled first when a Chinese Navy flotilla unilaterally went to conduct anti-piracy operations off the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean a couple of years ago. It additionally introduces an added element of ownership.

Since the early 1980s, China has been steadily developing its maritime capability. The primary objective has been to deter and delay ‘hostile’ navies from disrupting any potential military operations against Taiwan, or China’s attempts to ‘recover’ claimed territories in the South China Sea. China’s naval modernisation accordingly focussed on building submarines, in addition to surface ships, for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It currently has over 70 submarines including the recently added indigenously-built nuclear-powered submarines.Plans were up-scaled once Beijing felt it was ready for a larger role, including in distant waters, and it commenced building an aircraft carrier. In mid-April this year, photographs of the aircraft carrier were posted on Chinese websites. These photographs, which clearly depicted the armaments fitted on board, revealed that the aircraft carrier was 70 per cent complete and started 15-day long sea trials on August 10. Another indicator that the vessel was nearly ready was the recent appointment of PLAN captain Li Xiaoyan, an experienced navy, army and air force commander who has studied how to command an aircraft carrier. Presently holding the rank of senior colonel, Li Xiaoyan was assigned to Dalian, where the aircraft carrier Varyag is berthed, in December 2010. China’s Dongfang Daily reported that the aircraft carrier will see service in the East, North and South China Sea.Indicative of plans to build more aircraft carriers — three are expected to be inducted into service within the next five years — Bai Yaoping, another naval aviation pilot and course-mate of Li Xiaoyan, has been appointed vice president of the Dalian Naval School to train the new generation of navy commanders. Li Xiaoyan and Bai Yaoping were among the 10 outstanding pilots picked for training in the solitary ‘pilot warship captain class’ at Guangzhou Warship Academy in 1987.Approval now by the 162-member, Jamaica-based International Seabed Authority, of China’s application for exploration of a 10,000 square kilometre polymetallic sulphide ore deposit bloc on the Indian Ocean sea-bed, is an important step. It confirms Beijing’s plans to extend its influence on a long-term basis in to the Indian Ocean. It simultaneously expands the scope of China’s search for scarce and much-needed mineral and natural resources from the land to the ocean floor. China is now one of three entities to be awarded such a contract, the others being two companies in Tonga and Nauru for the Pacific Ocean and the Russian government for the mid-Atlantic ridge. Once signed, the contract will be valid for 15 years. The venture, which also gives China a modicum of ‘ownership’ in the Indian Ocean, will permit China to map the sea-bed and identify suitable spots including for mining gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper. The bid was filed consequent to the discovery of clues by a Chinese government-sponsored expedition team in 2005 that an enormous belt of polymetallic sulphides existed.China’s application to the International Seabed Authority clearly signals its desire to maintain a long-term presence in the Indian Ocean. Mineral exploration activity, which will take a long time once it commences, will require Chinese vessels to regularly ply the sea lanes to the designated spot. It will also entail regular visits by PLAN vessels. Giving an idea of the envisaged time-frame, Han Xiqiu, a researcher with China’s State Oceanic Administration’s Second Institute of Oceanography based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, said that mining activities will not start ‘until we have solved the environmental issues. We may need to wait for years, if not decades’.This bid simultaneously brings into focus China’s underwater research and warfare capability. It is one of the few nations with deep-sea exploration capabilities and recently sent its first manned deep-sea submarine, the Jiaolong to a depth of 5,057 metres in the Pacific Ocean. The deep-sea rift south of Madagascar, which is the area where China has been awarded the bloc by the International Seabed Authority, reaches a depth of 3,000 metres. Plans are to test the Jiaolong to a depth of 7,000 metres next year.A potentially important, but little noticed, aspect has been China’s steady focus on the design, development and manufacture of Unmanned Underwater Vessels (UUV). The UUVs, which are low cost, would be part of China’s asymmetric subterranean warfare strategy and augment its already sizeable submarine fleet. They would give it added operational flexibility. Initiated as part of the secret ‘863’ Programme, the UUVs have been under development since 1996. They could be deployed as part of an undersea network and used for sensing, shooting or as communication relay stations. A number of specialised institutes are at work in China on UUVs, suggesting that a large quantum of funds along with the necessary research and development (R&D) effort have already been invested in the project. As Chinese researchers work on advanced guidance and propulsion systems for the UUVs to enhance their effective deployment in maritime undersea warfare, the UUVs would acquire the potential to be deployed in offensive operational roles in more distant waters, like the Indian Ocean.China is presently pre-occupied with developments in the East and South China Seas, and to ‘recover’ sovereignty over large parts of these waters and establish dominance over this maritime territory of its interest. It, however, continues to harbour ambitions in the Indian Ocean. There have been sporadic indications of this in the form of comments by Chinese admirals of the need for bases abroad, and of the need for ensuring the security of Chinese commercial ships, largely carrying energy supplies, along commercial sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. The ocean seabed exploration rights acquired by China in the Indian Ocean are a major step forward in China realising its global maritime ambitions.

Jayadeva Ranade is a former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India